US: Michael Haack has been appointed as the chief executive officer (CEO) of Eagle Materials. He succeeds Dave Powers, who will retire on 1 July 2019. Powers will remain on the company’s board of directors.

Haack is currently Eagle Material’s president and chief operating officer (COO). He joined Eagle Materials as COO in 2014 from Halliburton Energy Services, where he worked for 17 years. He holds an MBA from Rice University in Texas, as well as Master and Bachelor degrees in Industrial Engineering from Texas A&M and Purdue University, respectively.

Powers has worked in the building materials industry for 40 years. He joined Eagle Materials, formerly known as Centex Construction Products, in 2002. In 2005 he was promoted to Executive Vice President for Gypsum. He became president and CEO of Eagle Materials in early 2016.

Sweden: Sandvik has appointed Henrik Ager as president of its Sandvik Mining and Rock Technology division and a member of the Sandvik Group executive management with effect from 1 April 2019. He succeeds Lars Engström, who will leave Sandvik.

Ager holds over 16 years of experience in the minding industry with positions held in South Africa, Australia, South America and India. He is currently the president for the Rock Tools division in Sandvik. Prior to this, he was the president for the Global Equipment division and Vice President for Strategy within Sandvik Mining and Rock Technology. He also worked for McKinsey and Ericsson.

Denmark: FLSmidth has appointed Annette Terndrup, Head of Group Legal and Strategy, and Cori Petersen, Head of Group Human Resources (HR), to Group Executive Management.

Terndrup joined FLSmidth in 2004 as corporate counsel. In 2013, she was appointed Group General Counsel, and in 2016 her role was expanded to include Group Strategy and mergers and acquisitions.

Petersen joined FLSmidth in 2016 as the leader of HR for the US. Shortly thereafter her role expanded to leader of HR for North America. In April 2018, she was appointed the role of Head of Group HR.

FLSmidth's Group Executive Management consists of: Thomas Schulz, Group chief executive officer (CEO); Lars Vestergaard, Group chief financial officer (CFO); Jan Kjaersgaard, Cement President; Manfred Schaffer, Mining President; Mikael Lindholm, Chief Digital Officer; Annette Terndrup, Head of Group Legal and Strategy; and Cori Petersen, Head of Group HR.

US: The US Senate has confirmed Andrew Wheeler as the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). He had been working as acting administrator since the resignation of Scott Pruitt in July 2018. The Portland Cement Association ‘applauded’ the appointment of Wheeler, saying that he would ‘ensure’ regulatory certainty for the cement and concrete industry.